WHAT IS DECIDO

DECIDO aims to demonstrate the transformative impact of adopting innovative methodologies, tools, and data for developing evidence-based policies by public authorities. Two are the main pillars of the project. The first one is the co-creation methodology that aims at defining what the activities during the phases of the Policy Life Cycle (PLC) should be undertaken. The second one is the DECIDO Portal, a web application with a toolset of digital services that support the actors involved in the PLC in performing the activities defined by the previous methodology.  one of the main outcome of the project is the collaboration  with European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)  that provides cloud services (storage and processing power through EGI infrastructure) and the establishment of the EOSC Competence Centre for supporting the Public Administration in the adoption and use of the cloud.

The project includes four pilot experiments in different European locations, addressing issues such as Forest fires (SP), Floods along the Po river, COVID-19 food distribution toward fighting Food waste, support for Ukrainian refugees (IT), Power outage management (GR), and Wildfires (FI). The results of these pilots have been used to verify the project’s objectives, including enabling public authorities to adopt data and cloud technologies, supporting strategic management aligned with political objectives, and involving local actors in data generation and analysis.

Moreover, DECIDO releases several exploitable outputs, including recommendations for public authorities, a robust business plan with cost-benefit analysis, and citizen engagement strategies focused on co-creation and data generation.

In the following sections main outcomes and their future pathways are presented.

The project aligns with the European Commission’s expectations, aiming to create analytical tools for reusing common infrastructures and data sets, as well as engaging citizens and businesses in co-creating tools to enhance trust and legitimacy of authorities.

SO WHAT IS NOW THE PATHWAY?

4 READY FOR CHALLENGES OUTCOMES:

DECIDO Approach for Evidence-Based Policy Making

The DECIDO approach for evidence-based policy making relies on three main principles: 

  • exploitation of existing and newly created data; 
  • engagement of all stakeholders in a structured, effective and efficient way, promoting the concepts of collaboration and co-creation; 
  • Support through innovative tools to provide digital services useful in each step of the policy life cycle (PLC).   

The approach constitutes a dynamic, iterative process, putting the actual needs of the end-users at the centre of the stage. 

The DECIDO Approach allows going from data to the decision making. It follows the actors involved in the PLC in the overall workflow to create a new policy, or improving an already existing one, exploiting the power of data. 

Target audience/s

Political Actors (Policy makers; Funders and funding bodies) 

Information, advice, knowledge and expertise providers (Consultants) 

Intervention actors (Public bodies at different levels) 

Social actors (Citizens; Civil Society organisations) 

Target Audience Needs

The DECIDO approach for evidence-based policy making attempts to cover a broad spectrum of needs, originating from all stakeholders’ categories reported above. 

In principle, these exact needs, along with specific challenges, formulated the reference result (methodology for evidence-based policy making). 

The full list of needs identified (34 needs) is available in D2.2 – Report on the needs and challenges for the public administration. 

Outcomes

When adopted, a methodology for evidence-based policy making can result in a wide spectrum of important benefits. However, it needs to be noted that since the policy cycle usually is a long-lasting process, the results of which might need significant time (e.g., some years) to become evident, one must invest the appropriate time prior to determining whether such an approach has proven effective or not. Along these lines, indicative key results may include: 

  • Increased motivation to (and, thus, engagement/participation rates of) stakeholders other than policy makers in the policy cycle processes; 
  • Promotion of transparency in policy making processes, and restoration of stakeholders’ trust in public sector; 
  • More and improved innovation generation practices; 
  • Improved business profitability of processes related to the policy cycle; 
  • Easier access to (open) data and accruing knowledge. 
Exploitation Roadmap
  • Actions (Briefly describe actions planned to be executed 3-6 months after the end of the project) 
  • ENG will exploit the DECIDO Approach for Evidence-Based Policy Making mainly to improve its current offerings dedicated to PAs, and local service providers, aligning with DECIDO objectives. It represents a relevant opportunity to enhance its offer for policy makers, in the application of evidence-based policymaking, strengthening its capabilities of providing innovative tool as well as the use of the knowledge and foreground acquired during the project in follow-up research and development projects. 
  • Roles (Roles of partners involved in the actions defined above) 

ENG is involved in DECIDO through the Digital Experience Competence Center, within the Digitech business unit, that is in contact with and transfers technologies to the corporate business units dealing with local PAs.  The main ENG role is zto support PAs development strategies and improve the innovation processes within local Public Administrations (PA) and civil society, offering a wide range of application services and solutions. 

  • Impact in 3-year time (Describe impact in terms of growth/benefits for the society) 
  • The adoption of the Approach for Evidence-Based Policy Making has a range of growth and benefits for society, ultimately leading to more effective and efficient governance. Here are some key impacts: 
  • I) Improved Policy Outcomes: Evidence-based policy making results in policies that are co-created, more targeted, efficient, and effective. By relying on empirical data and on stakeholder needs and user perspectives, policies are better aligned with the actual needs and challenges of society. 
  • II) Increased Accountability and Transparency: When decisions are co-created and grounded in evidence, the rationale for policy makers choices becomes clearer and more transparent.  
  • III) Long-Term Planning and Sustainability: Evidence-based policy making encourages a focus on long-term planning and sustainability, which can lead to more consistent and forward-thinking governance. 

DECIDO Portal

The DECIDO Platform will be the initial unique point of access for diverse functionalities, services and guidelines provided by the DECIDO ecosystem for different stakeholders. 

The DECIDO platform offers policy makers a compact set of tools to initiate, manage and conclude data-driven policies. The tools allow the users to gather, store and visualize data relevant to policy making processes. Additionally, the user can link the data to the different steps of the policy making process using the DECIDO portal.  

This collection offers a comprehensive toolbox for data-driven policy making. At the heart of this toolbox is the DECIDO portal, which plays a crucial role in connecting various data operations to the policy making process. Furthermore, the DECIDO portal offers a structured methodology that allows keeping a log of the entire policy making process, while bolstering each phase with data evidence generated through the use of other tools. 

The underlying concepts of DECIDO support the work with external tools, while ensuring that the data of each Policy Labs is kept isolated. Upon the creation of a Policy Lab a dedicated space in each of the tools is created. For example, a dedicated Data Catalogue is created in the Data Catalogue. This gives each of the DECIDO Policy Labs a dedicated workspace both in the DECIDO portal as well as in each of the tools. Upon deletion of the Policy Lab the integration layer will subsequently delete the spaces in each of the tools. This also ensures that the data of the Policy Lab is properly removed from the DECIDO Portal and the toolbox. 

The toolbox of the DECIDO portal offers various methods to collect, manipulate, analyse or visualize data. The goal is to offer the users a good degree of flexibility when working with data. The DECIDO Portal integrates the components in a user-friendly online environment. The security concept of all components and the overall platform will rely on the usage of the dedicated Identity and Access Management service. The tools can be broadly divided into the following categories: Data manipulation; Participation and Collaboration; and Data Analysis. 

Target audience/s

Primary target group: 

Political Actors (Policy makers; Funders and funding bodies) 

Intervention actors (Public bodies at different levels) 

Secondary target group  

Information, advice, knowledge and expertise providers (Consultants) and Social actors (Citizens; Civil Society organisations) 

Target Audience Needs

Policy making is the process of creating and monitoring policies to solve societal challenges. In this respect, it is often conceptualised as a policy cycle, consisting of several different phases, such as agenda setting, design, implementation and monitor & evaluation.  

In doing so, the public administrations need to develop the digital skills of their employee, to find useful data and power resources. They need to exploit the power of the cloud technologies, to collect data from different data source, to perform the analysis of big data. 

On the other hand, the citizens, businesses and organisations want to be involved in the decision-making process. 

Outcomes

DECIDO Portal will support and enable effective involvement of actors in all 4 phases of the policy cycle; proven through the identification, integration and application of appropriate tools and services in the project’s pilot cases. Specifically, DECIDO Portal will foster the use of the cloud infrastructure, data and models available to public administrations which can support the policy cycle. 

Through the DECIDO Portal the policy decision makers and citizens will be able to improve their cooperation and develop better policies leveraging the use of the data and experience of all the actors involved in the 4 phases of the Policy Life Cycle. 

The DECIDO portal serves as the central component of the DECIDO ecosystem, seamlessly connecting the policy making process with the array of tools offered by DECIDO. It facilitates a flexible and uncomplicated integration of various data stages (collection, storage, analysis) into the policy making process. The DECIDO portal introduces key concepts that effectively articulate data handling and policy making processes. 

  • A Policy Lab is a dedicated workspace that encompasses all other entities related to the policy making process. The Policy Lab is the parent entity for every other data model (Policy Process, Phases, Steps, Activities, Stakeholders, Resources). Furthermore, a Policy lab has dedicated spaces in each of the tools introduced for the DECIDO project. This ensures that each pilot can manage their own policy processes independently from the others, protecting their processes and data. 
  • Toolbox and Resource pool. The toolbox represents the collection of the DECIDO tools. Such tools are integrated through the creation of dedicated spaces for each of the Policy Labs. Upon the creation of a policy lab, dedicated spaces are created in each of the tools. Pilots can use their own spaces according to their needs. The tools generate resources, for example dashboards, which are then harvested and saved in the DECIDO portal in the Resource pool of each Policy Lab. The resources can be added to Activities as a support or evidence of the policy making process. 
  • Policy Process with Phases, Steps, and Activities: Each Policy Lab can accommodate multiple policy processes, which are further divided into Phases, Steps, and Activities. For instance, a Phase like “Agenda Setting” may consist of a Step called “Feasibility,” which, in turn, can be linked to an activity like “Idea.” These entities function as data models within the backend, granting the flexibility to design policy processes with various Phases, Steps, and Activities. Moreover, the DECIDO portal generates a public story for each Policy Process, showcasing the organized Phases, Steps, and Activities to the public. 
  • Stakeholders are persons or institutions that participate in a Policy Lab or a Policy Process. The stakeholders can be added to policy processes to showcase their participations and legitimate the results. 
  • These concepts are pivotal to both the user experience and the development of the portal. Each concept is translated into a data model that can be created, edited, or removed through the user interface. The data model and user interface faithfully replicate the hierarchical structure, effectively organizing Policy Processes, Stakeholders, and Resources around Policy Labs. 

In summary, the DECIDO portal offers a straightforward yet flexible and expandable structure, enabling the seamless integration of a wide range of data processing tools into decision-making and policy-making processes. 

Exploitation Roadmap

 Actions (Briefly describe actions planned to be executed 3-6 months after the end of the project) 

Roles (Roles of partners involved in the actions defined above) 

Impact in 3-year time (Describe impact in terms of growth/benefits for the society) 

  1. User Training and Onboarding:
  • Develop a comprehensive training program to onboard users effectively.
  • Provide user manuals, guides, and tutorials for each user role within the DECIDO portal.
  1. Customization:
  • Encourage users to create their own Policy Labs according to their specific needs.
  • Customize the tools, toolbox, and resource pool for each Policy Lab.
  • Show users how to generate resources like dashboards and connect them to Activities.
  1. Policy Process Design:
  • Train users on creating and managing Policy Processes, including Phases, Steps, and Activities.
  • Explain how to organize and design policy processes according to their goals.
  1. Public Storytelling:
  • Showcase the public story feature to users, demonstrating how it can be used to share organized Phases, Steps, and Activities with the public.
  • Encourage users to leverage this feature for transparency and communication.
  1. Stakeholder Involvement:
  • Highlight the importance of adding stakeholders to Policy Labs and Processes.
  • Teach users how to add, manage, and showcase the participation of stakeholders.
  1. Data Management and Security:
  • Emphasize the importance of data security and access control.
  • Train users on data management best practices and how to secure their policy processes and data.
  1. Integration with Other DECIDO Tools:
  • Show how the DECIDO portal seamlessly integrates with other tools in the DECIDO ecosystem.
  • Train users on how to use these integrated tools for better policy-making.
  1. Feedback Mechanism:
  • Establish a feedback mechanism for users to report issues, suggest improvements, or request new features.
  • Regularly review and act on user feedback to enhance the portal’s functionality.

EOSC Competence Centre for PAs and Policy Makers

DECIDO has been working on the EOSC Competence Centre for Public Authorities concept to provide a sustainable path to foster the bilateral collaboration between representatives from the Public Sector with EOSC experts and consultants, so that the two communities can interact and profit from each other in a win-win situation. DECIDO has been acting as an incubator bringing together project pilot representatives and their teams of technical and policy experts, and the EOSC infrastructure and service supply side. This collaboration focuses on creating a channel for the exchange of support and technical expertise, that helps finding the right services for the needs of use cases, and to provide a channel to facilitate exploitation and outreach.  The EOSC CC for PA has initially focused on the use cases within DECIDO and it is open to be extended to the rest of Public Policy Cluster Projects ( n the DT-GOVERNANCE-12-2019-2020 programme) and any further interested parties i).  

The Competence Center will create a channel for the exchange of experiences, support and technical expertise between these parties and enable service exploitation and outreach to policymakers. It will also enable all stakeholders to share best practices amongst themselves as well as with the generic public. 

Target audience/s

EOSC Demand Side 

  • Political Actors (Policy makers; Funders and funding bodies) and Intervention actors (Public bodies at different levels) 
  • Public Authority Technical Parnters ( such as IT Providers, Consultants, etc) 
  • Policy Development related projects 
  • EOSC Supply Side 
  • EOSC Core ( EOSC A, Tripartite , etc) 
  • EOSC Exchange Service Providers ( Onboarded on EOSC Marketplace 
Target Audience Needs

EOSC Demand Side 

  • Computation and Storage resources for running the services 
  • Discovery and access to data needed for policy development 
  • Expert support for technical development 
  • Core and Thematic Services that can support the Public Authorities in their policy making 

EOSC Supply Side 

  • Matchmaking with public authorities based on national/institutional priorities. 
  • Development of a new user base in the form of Public Authorities. 
  • New services and data from Public Authorities feeding the EOSC ecosystem ( onboarded in EOSC Marketplace) 
Outcomes
  • EOSC Competence Center concept focusing on Public Authorities 
  • Data and Technical requirements for serving Public Authorities 
  • Terms of Reference governing the EOSC Competence Center, including collaboration and membership charter for institutions and individuals 
  • Contribution to the implementation of EOSC Roadmap by targeting the Public Authorities  
  • Best Practices for supporting PAs within EOSC 
  • Benefit analysis of cross-infrastrucutre data and service provisioning 
  • Success Stories of policy development using EOSC 
  • Promotional Material (Web presence, Brochures, Videos) for the Competence Center and for the impact of the Project. 

 

Exploitation Roadmap
  • Actions (Briefly describe actions planned to be executed 3-6 months after the end of the project) 
  • EGI Is taking ownership of the EOSC CC for PA, creating a best effort struture able to continue the work initiated in DECIDO. 
  • Roles (Roles of partners involved in the actions defined above). Partners and individuals able to adhere and contribute by collaboration and membership charter 
  • Impact in 3-year time (Describe impact in terms of growth/benefits for the society) Impact depends on the adoption of EOSC CC for PA principles by EOSC. Focus on Public Authorities and Industry has been shifted over time since the beginning of the project. DECIDO has provided valuable insights to foster the adoption of EOSC services by Public Authorities. Fruitful collaborations with complementing initiatives has been started( EOSC DiH, Skills4EOSC, EuroCC, etc).Future success will depend highly on follow up incubation period that helps to foster the uptake of DECIDO learnings by EOSC nodes (as they are established) and to create a self-sustaining structure on the longer term. 

    Co-Creation Methodology

    The Co-Creation Methodology is a set of methods, activities, principles and rules to carry out co-creation processes with all stakeholders involved, aimed at designing or improving emergency response policies. The process is divided into steps and sub-steps for which the following data are provided: description, activities, stakeholders involved and supporting methods, techniques and tools. The methodology is conceptualised to involve citizens in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public services, specifically addressing emergency response policies. However, its basis and general guidelines can easily be extrapolated to other public innovation strategies or scopes. 

    Target audience/s

    The methodology is primarily aimed at public authorities or entities responsible for designing, implementing and managing emergency response policies. The methodology has been built through an iterative process that has resulted in three deliverables, the last of which represents its final version. Participative co-creation processes with different stakeholders, and especially with citizens, are being widely promoted by public bodies as a way to foster closeness with citizens, improve transparency and increase public confidence in public administration. Therefore, a wide range of public bodies could benefit from DECIDO’s methodology, as well as the academic world, taking it as a reference for future public innovation projects and/or applying it in internal processes. 

    Target Audience Needs

    Governments and public administrations are aware of the importance of involving citizens in the design of public services, as this results in improving the efficiency of the services provided as well as in the satisfaction and recovery of trust in public authorities. One way of involving citizens is through a clear and guided methodology to conduct an effective co-creation process including all stages, activities, tools and recommendations that are proposed. 

    Outcomes

    The priority will be to ensure that the involved public administrations positively value the inclusion of co-creation processes in their own activities and, in the long term, interiorise the methodology and incorporate it into their regular activities. In this way, they will act as prescribers of our methodology to other public administrations as a good practice to approach the design of public policies with the participation of citizens. 

      Exploitation Roadmap

      Actions  

      • Dissemination of project outcomes through the project website and partner networks.
      • Offering a training service in the use of the co-creation methodology based on the experience gained during its implementation. This service can be addressed to consultancy firms or to the ultimate recipients of the methodology: public administrations.
      • Offering a consultancy service for advice and support in the implementation of the co-creation methodology aimed at public bodies.

      Roles  

      • All partners involved in the development and implementation of the DECIDO co-creation methodology (CTO, IBERCIVIS, KAJ, KPRF, LC NTUA, SCN, TECNALIA, VOL.TO) would be able to offer training services in the use of the methodology or consultancy services and support in its implementation.

      Impact in 3-year time 

        • Public services that are more efficient, effective and responsive to citizen needs.
        • A transparent and participatory way of doing politics that improves citizens’ trust in the performance of policymakers.

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      Project Coordinator: Engineering (IT)

      Antonio Filograna

      Email

      info@decido-project.eu

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